Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Luisana Paiva-Briceño. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Luisana thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

For over twenty years, I have been dedicated to teaching languages ​​at multiple levels, focusing on young adults and professionals who wish to learn or improve their Spanish.

After hearing from hundreds of students that they did not learn anything of value or applicable in a real conversation from their former teachers, I decided to turn the approach around and focus on teaching Spanish from the point of view of the student’s real needs (For example, what’s the purpose of learning that the dog is brown, and the pants are yellow when we want to communicate at the airport?)

Taking into consideration the real goals and objectives of the student, I designed a Spanish learning method that is not only fun, complete, clear and structured, but also custom made for the adult who wants to learn or improve his/her Spanish skills.

With my curriculum, I put to rest old myths that claim children learn more easily than adults or that adults have a hard time learning a second language, focusing on the knowledge of the student’s native tongue, and making analogies in their language until achieving the long-awaited “Aha!” moment.

After years in a physical classroom, I have made the jump to the digital world to bring Laprofedespañol’s method to the entire world. With us, you not only learn the language, but also the culture, a fundamental and indispensable piece when studying a second language.

Laprofedespañol makes learning Spanish a complete experience, with professionalism, challenges, and empathy to meet the needs of our students from the commitment to teach a second language with passion and joy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have a Bachelor’s degree in Education, with a Minor in Modern Languages, English and French, from the University of Zulia, in Venezuela.

When I came to the United States in 2004, I focused on teaching Spanish as a Second Language, and from then on, I have taught at all levels of education, from elementary school, up to College level.

When I arrived to Raleigh, in 2010, after living in Florida, I noticed the need of Spanish speakers to serve the growing Hispanic population. Back in 2010, there were very few people who spoke Spanish as a second language in the area, even though the need was very high. For this reason, I had the opportunity to work on research projects at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, as an expert in the area of ​​education, to help English-speaking teachers to teach children whose native language was Spanish.

This gave me not only the experience of working with great professionals in the educational field, but also the vision for developing an interesting, innovative, and above all, effective program to teach adults and young adults to speak Spanish quickly, effectively, and efficiently.

After years in the physical classroom, I made the transition, and brought my Spanish program online, where I have been helping people as far as Charlotte, Miami, Jacksonville, and Venezuela, to learn a second language remotely.

For me, one of the proudest moment as a teacher, is when my students tell me they were able to engage in simple conversations with native Spanish speakers, and were able to understand and be understood. The hard work finally pays off.

I emphasize two aspects when I start working with a new client. The first is that learning a second language is a process that shouldn’t be stressful, on the contrary, it should be enjoyable. The second is that the person should aim for good grammar and simple vocabulary. In other words, expect to make mistakes along the way (which is good), and be fine if their vocabulary in Spanish is not as extensive as it is in English when they start their learning journey. Simplicity is key when learning a new language.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Preparation, maintain and deliver high quality classes, and listen to my students.

I believe that one of the key pieces of the success of my program, and which has helped me to build and gain reputation as a Spanish teacher, has been the preparation that I invest in my classes. I offer a product that adapts to the needs of my clients, they are going to learn a vocabulary that is useful for the area in which they want to use Spanish as a second language. I am in a constant learning mode myself, I like to find new and effective teaching strategies that other teachers successfully use in their practice, and apply them within my own classroom. The mere fact of speaking a language, not necessarily makes someone capable of teaching said language, lots of preparation is needed to deliver a quality product.

This results in my students being able to speak Spanish really well in a relatively short period of time, because the classes are curated based on the needs of each client. This also eliminates filler or unnecessary classes.

This effective teaching strategy has led me to rank highly within the Spanish programs for adults, because of the satisfactory results. A happy client is one that is going to recommend you to colleagues and friends.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

As I mentioned before, delivering a high quality product. I have barely made any advertising for my Spanish program because my own clients have been the ones recommending me to others.

I use my social media account to promote my classes in an organic way. The focus on my social media platform is to deliver useful content that anyone can use to improve their second language learning process, whether or not they are my student. Once they follow my tips and tricks, and see results, it is more likely that they will contact me to start a formal training with me.

Contact Info:

• Website: laprofedespanol.blogspot.com
• Instagram: @laprofedespanol
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laprofedesoanol
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/luisana-paiva-briceño-41a62874
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@laprofedespanoloficial
• Other: https://linktr.ee/laprofedespanol

Image Credits
NA